Fertility and Sterility
Volume 94, Issue 3 , Pages 1059-1064, August 2010

The effect of premenstrual symptoms on activities of daily life

  • Lorraine Dennerstein, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprint requests: Lorraine Dennerstein, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia (FAX: 61-3-9387-4030).
    • ,
  • Philippe Lehert, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
    • Faculty of Economics, Louvain Academy, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
    • ,
  • Torbjörn Carl Bäckström, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Umea Neurosteroid Research Center, Department of Clinical Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Norrlands University Hospital, Umea, Sweden
    • ,
  • Klaas Heinemann, M.D.

      Affiliations

    • Women's Health Care, Bayer Schering Pharma, Berlin, Germany

Received 23 January 2009; received in revised form 8 April 2009; accepted 9 April 2009. published online 01 June 2009.

Objective

To assess impact of premenstrual symptoms on activities of women's daily lives (ADL).

Design

Cross-sectional population-based survey.

Setting

Market research company.

Patient(s)

A total of 4,085 women aged 14–50 years recruited by random telephone digit dialing in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Mexico.

Intervention(s)

None.

Main Outcome Measure(s)

A telephone interview checklist of 23 premenstrual symptoms, sociodemographic and lifestyle variables, and ADL effects (global question and seven areas). Stepwise regression measured the effect of premenstrual symptoms and sociodemographic factors on ADL.

Result(s)

Symptoms and symptom domains (physical and mental) had similar negative effects on ADL. Activities of daily life were predominantly affected by symptom severity. Income level, age, and country also significantly affected ADL. In all, 2,638 women (64.6%) were minimally affected in ADL, 981 (24%) were moderately affected, and 454 (11.1%) were severely affected.

Conclusion(s)

Both physical and mental premenstrual symptoms have significant impact on quality of life, assessed as ADL. Up to 35% of women of reproductive age in Europe and Latin America were moderately or severely affected in ADL by cyclical premenstrual symptoms.

Key Words: Premenstrual symptoms, quality of life, activities of daily life, epidemiology

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 L.D. serves on the expert advisory board for Boehringer Ingelheim and receives speaker honoraria from Boehringer Ingelheim, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and Bayer Schering; P.L. serves as a regular senior consulting statistician for Merck Kgaa, Sanofi-Aventis, Ipsen, Serono, and Bayer Schering; T.C.B. receives speaker honoraria from Bayer Schering Pharma and is a grant application referee for Schering Plough; K.H. is an employee of Bayer Schering Pharma.

 This study was supported by Bayer Schering Pharma, Women's Health Care, Berlin, Germany. Data were analyzed independently of the company by the first two authors.

PII: S0015-0282(09)00867-X

doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2009.04.023

Fertility and Sterility
Volume 94, Issue 3 , Pages 1059-1064, August 2010

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